Nielsen’s Nook

Reflections on Hebrews 3:12-14

12 Take care, brothers and sisters, so that there will not be in any of you an evil faithless heart by which to fall away from the living God, 13 but encourage one another every day as long as the day is still called Today, so that none from among you become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we become participants with the Christ if we retain faithfully the beginning of realization until the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14, author's translation and emphasis)

Participation in the life of Christ is a most dangerous thing. As a branch abides in the vine (John 15) it will be pruned. Deadwood will be removed. Greater life will bloom. As we reach out for God, we must realize that the handle that he puts forth for us to grasp is Cross-shaped. Or as Luther wrote, "In his skin and on his back we too must ascend." [1] This was St. Paul's approach with the Corinthians, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, ... who will sustain you to the end..." (1 Cor 2:1, 1:8). On my own pilgrimage this verse has had increasing relevance. These words echo to us as a whispered reminder, often in the context of the busyness that is substituted for the Christian life these days. The warning involves not primarily the big sins, but rather the little ones. These little ones are the subtle, often socially acceptable sins and dispositions that work like carpenter ants upon a great wooden fence.  One morning the owner of the house notices a few little ants working tirelessly, day and night, upon her fence. Days later it has holes in it and posts are eaten through so that entire sections fall down when the first hard wind comes. Her property is now unprotected; tearing down the old fence and rebuilding the new is a task she may suddenly find she hasn't the resources to accomplish quickly with all the other daily demands she faces. The parable of the carpenter ants works into our own lives when we realize that the owner of the house did not ignore the ants out of negligence but because she was busy doing other things, many of which were good and spiritual, or at least they are socially accepted as good and spiritual. In the end, the little bites of the carpenter ants created gaping holes and the owner of the house is left vulnerable to a degree that she may not be able to overcome on her own.

[1] Martin Luther, vol. 42, Luther's Works, Vol. 42 : Devotional Writings I, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald and Helmut T. Lehmann, Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, c1969), 42:23.